1. Field of the Invention
This disclosure is related to electronic systems, and more particularly, to the thermal control of electronic systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the number of transistors implemented integrated circuits (ICs) has increased, the management of issues related to temperature has increased in importance. In many ICs, a large number of transistors operating at the same time can produce a significant amount of heat. If left unchecked, the amount of heat generated by the operation of the transistors of an IC may cause erroneous operation or permanent damage.
Temperature sensors are implemented on many different types of ICs. One or more temperature sensors may be place on an IC die and may be used to determine a temperature at a respective location thereon. The temperature sensors may measure and report temperature information to other circuitry, such as one or more registers. In some IC's, such as various types of processors and systems on a chip (SOCs), software may be executed that monitors the registers. If a temperature exceeding a predefined threshold is detected, the software may initiate actions to shut down one or more portions of the IC.